The Center for Medicare Advocacy (the Center) is grateful to the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for revising a CMS Medicare home health brochure issued earlier this year. The Center identified some concerns about the brochure’s description of the Medicare home health benefit. The revisions are now reflected in the June 2023 CMS publication entitled Get Care in The Comfort of Your Own Home. (Medicare’s Home Health Benefit.)
The revised CMS Medicare home health brochure confirms that Medicare is available to cover services for recovery from an illness or injury OR to maintain or slow decline in an individual’s condition, as clarified in Jimmo v. Sebelius, a case brought by the Center clarifying that Medicare coverage is equally available to improve, maintain, or prevent decline. CMS has incorporated Jimmo into regulation and policy and has issued further resources at Jimmo Settlement | CMS.
The CMS revisions also clarify that home health aides are Medicare coverable for beneficiaries receiving skilled nursing or therapy, and that other certain authorized practitioners, as well as doctors, can order home health services.
July 6, 2023 – K. Holt